Water is life. Knowledge is power.
Photo: The Great Barrier Reef, Northern Queensland, Australia
Rivers deliver sediment from land to the ocean. This sediment contains nutrients which can feed microscopic algae in water. But, if there is too much sediment and nutrients, delivered by floods from land-based erosion, algal blooms can occur that have negative effects on the Great Barrier Reef.
The challenge is that sediment comes from many different locations and we need to know … [more…]
Special to the Lake Okeechobee News/Courtesy of James Abernethy. FWC employs private contractors at a cost of millions of dollars a year in Florida to spray waterbodies in an effort to control invasive hydrilla.
Advocates of clean water in Florida are jumping on a bandwagon that started rolling late last summer when marine life expert Jim Abernethy of West Palm Beach started a Change.org petition calling for the Florida Fish … [more…]
Photo: NRCS Scientists Holding Up Two Soil Samples. US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service
The recently released National Climate Assessment discussed the impacts of climate change on our nation’s water supply and agricultural productivity. The levels of uncertainty regarding the future of our water supply are troubling. Changes in precipitation patterns will intensify droughts and increase heavy downpours. Hotter, more extreme weather will disrupt how well and how … [more…]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a wide-ranging bill to improve the nation’s water infrastructure, including a Florida project intended to reduce toxic algae blooms that have devastated coastal marine life and emptied beaches.
The new law will help create a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee designed to filter out toxins that contribute to harmful algae blooms that have killed turtles, fish and other marine life — even … [more…]
This blog was written by Charmaine Dahlenburg, Manager of the National Aquarium’s Chesapeake Bay Program. Photo © PAUL BURK
Estuaries are necessary for the health of people and the planet. They capture and filter stormwater runoff, reduce effects of flooding, prevent shoreline erosion and provide habitat for fish, birds, mammals … [more…]